August 11, 1860 | Illustration
This image from the August 11, 1860 issue of Harper's Weekly offers a cartoonist's rendering of the misleading term "AfterDonkey Engine."
May 29, 1869 | Illustration
This image was a metaphor for where the nation was going, although it said little about where the nation had been. Created by Alfred R. Waud, one of the most prolific Civil War sketch artists and lithographers, the image suggested a national tapestry of progress. Far from binding the nation, railroads and the culture that developed around them had been one of the root causes of discord and division.
1870 | Illustration
Richard Cobden, a leading Liberal in Parliament, was also invested in the Illinois Central Railroad. He took two major trips to the United States, first in 1835 and again in 1859. During his first trip he traveled on railroads for a total of just ninety miles, from Lowell, Mass., to Boston, and then to Providence, R.I. On his second trip, twenty-four years later, he traveled 4,000 miles on American railroads.
March 30, 1872 | Illustration
This image from the March 30, 1872 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts a cartoonist's view of justice "derailing" a corrupt ring on the Erie Railroad.
August 8, 1877 | Illustration
This cover image from the August 8, 1877 issue of PUCK Magazine depicts Henry Ward Beecher as a hypocrite.
November 3, 1894 | Illustration
In 1894, Democrat William Jennings Bryan ran against Republican John M. Thurston for Nebraska's open seat in the United States Senate. During the race, the Omaha Bee, a Republican reform paper, campaigned against the Burlington & Missouri Railroad as an especially nefarious force endangering the republic. In this political cartoon, Editor Edward Rosewater broadened the paper's attack to include all monopolies.